Who knew that Cushman provided scooters for the military during WWII for the specific job of getting paratroopers some wheels behind enemy lines? They did and this is one of the famed Cushman 53A Airborne Infantry Scooter models that they made by the thousands for our boys. Now, this particular unit did not exactly lead the mode adventuresome battlefield life, but it was in military operations and as best the seller knows lived its life at Eagle Field in California.
While at Eagle Field we’re guessing that the Cushman was used to bring pilots to their airplanes and perhaps to conduct business on the base. Most of these we have ever seen use a single seat. The addition of the second seat in the back is what makes us think that this thing was used for ferry duty, but that’s legit guess.
100% intact and complete, the seller has not attempted to run the scooter for fear of causing problems. We think that is kind of smart. It would not be hard to pull down the little 4.6 hp one cylinder engine that’s in this thing. The Cushman Husky mill is known as simple and tough. It was gutsy enough to give this thing a 40mph top speed when it was tuned up right. We have to imagine that some enterprising soldiers may have tweaked these things during downtime on the front, but again, that’s a guess. Hell, they hot rodded the tanks, they surely tweaked on these babies.
We love this because it is not only interesting but it has cool history. It’ll need some elbow grease and some love but after whoever buys it is done, they will have one bad ass little motor scooter.
eBay: This Cushman scooter is a zippy little two seater with military history
These bikes were an attempt to copy the Wellbike, a British motorcycle that was fitted into a tube and air dropped with paratroopers. Look them up, they’re pretty sweet!